Sweeper: Windrip vs Trump

“It can’t happen here” by Sinclair Lewis has always been regarded as a political “work of art”, and after the group discussions, I can see why it is important especially in today’s history. The group began discussing how the book was written before World War II took place and predicted things that are taking place today in Trumps presidency. It was noted how when Lewis was in the process of writing the novel, he was just expanding his imagination by attempting to predict what would have happened if Hitler was in the United States or if his (much) lesser evil American-twin, Huey Long, won the presidential election vs Franklin D. Roosevelt (shortly before the release of the book, Huey Long was assassinated).

The main striking similarity that Trump has with the protagonist of the novel, Buzz Windrip, is how both of them have won the presidential election by speaking out against immigrants and the media. Both Windrip and Trump have promised to create jobs for “Real Americans” to create a divide, and both of them shared one goal, making America Great Again.

Then it was mentioned how (back in 1935) people had argued that what was going on in Germany at the time can’t happen in America (hence the title). One person in the group mentioned that the book was almost written as a warning and nowadays it became more of an “I told you so” kind of book.

Americans and people from other nations that have a significant rise in numbers of white supremacist groups or any kind of hate group, can use this book (and Trump’s presidency) as a lesson to avoid the birth of another Hitler and cause more damage to the world than there already is.